pastrygirl

Thanks for the links. I haven't tried cutting caramels on the guitar because I'm 99% sure there would be a disaster of some sort, instead I use my guitar strings to mark the top of the caramel slab then cut by hand. So tedious! I'd say that yes, I have trouble with consistency from batch to batch. Lately because my candy thermometer died and little instant read digital ones can't be left in the pot. But some batches do end up squishier than others without that being my intent. I think there is some sort of correlation between formula and cook temp, but I'm not sure what it is - like if more or less butter in a given recipe equals a higher or lower cook temp to get the same texture. For my chewy caramels, I go to about 155-160F, a little hotter in the summer so they will be firmer at room temp - sometimes I'm cutting caramels when it's 60F in the kitchen, sometimes it's 70 . A few degrees does make a difference, which is not as crucial for caramels that will be wrapped in cello. More crucial for caramels to be dipped - too soft and they'll find the weak spots in the coating and ooze out. And that's why I haven't dipped caramels in a very long time! Caramel molds in use at the end of this video - so easy! Molds plus an enrobing line and voila! a zillion pieces of product (note: Fran did issue a correction on the "I invented them statement" she knows she just helped to popularize them in the US:

So French caramel is where you caramelize the sugar separately, and Maillard caramels are where you cook everything all together? Interesting, I'd never heard those terms for the two methods. I'm more curious about silicon caramel molds. Jim, what did you find, and how much time will they save over individually cutting by hand?

Tried TJ's Oven-Baked Cheese Bites today. Dammit, Joe! Why do you have to take cheese, one of my major weaknesses, and make it crunchy, my favorite texture? I think these were just made to torture me, and to make America even fatter. They are not pretending to be crackers or croutons, just cheese for eating and even though the package claims two servings, without a zip-top you're probably going to eat the whole pouch.

Yes. There are tons of restaurants but lots of turnover. Rent and wages are too high to not be full most nights. While restaurants have been multiplying, grocery stores have also been upping their game. Rotisserie chicken and Trader Joe's make it easy and more markets have huge salad and hot food bars.

The second photo looks great, and the third doesn't look too bad. Maybe the recipe is supposed to make flatter cookies. Not everybody likes super chunky cookies all the time! The lower photos look like totally acceptable cookies to me. A little flat, but not oozing butter or turning to lacy caramel at the edges. Better for ice cream sandwiches! I disagree with John, the flour may make a difference. Going from 13% protein to 10% is a stronger AP flour being replaced by more delicate AP or pastry flour. (Usually referred to as the protein content, not the gluten content. I think it only turns into gluten once you add water and agitate?) http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22310/high-gluten-wheat-flours-amp-gluten-percentage-table http://www.theartisan.net/ProteinComparisons.htm

Does it actually form layers, or is it layers of flavor from the different ingredients? I'm curious why this is called "stratified" - I had never heard the term relating to cream sauce, but just saw it used in a social media post so I'm curious. This chef says his is reduced then chilled and whipped with aromatics. Anyone more familiar with this technique and how it got named?

WF had already started rolling out their "365" stores with more affordable selections, so maybe they will keep going in that direction.

Is that a nice way of saying they use crap chocolate? If they're not using premium ingredients, they might not want to pay for premium labor, but who knows. If you do take the job, we will enjoy hearing about the experience. Even though I've long been frustrated by how low the pay is for pastry work (don't specialists cost extra in every other industry?) i have much more sympathy now that I have my own business. It's profitable, but I'm still a long way from being able afford employees who want actual monetary pay instead of just chocolate!

Location? Looks like you are near Vancouver BC? Have they made you any offers? Hourly pastry cooks in restaurants here (Seattle) might get up to $18/hr MAX with solid experience, but chocolate is a more specialized skill and you're doing product development so maybe $20-25. What do various pastry jobs pay where you are? Restaurants in BC always seem a little more expensive than comparable places here, so hopefully they are paying staff better. And I suppose health insurance isn't a bargaining chip in Canada - here our salaries might be lower if the company is paying an extra several $K for benefits. If you don't want to give them your recipes then sub-contracting seems better. More efficient for your production if you're just making extra of your own products to sell to them. But if they are already established with some of their own recipes, that could be tricky.

I'm not sure how people do it. A lot of chocolate seems to be in relatively open cases, and just the room is air conditioned. I've had issues with condensation when going from freezer to room temp, but not with regular day-to-day humidity at consistent temp. It's not as muggy here as East coast summers, though. How humid would it be inside a bakery? How about other chocolate shops where you can see what cases they are using? Let's all do a little industrial espionage for Jim! Yeah, the woman who wanted the caramels was a little off. She kept going on about her French candy bags, what, is my packaging not cute enough? Some customers might make such a proposition worthwhile, just not that one! If you do end up selling by the piece, get a sign with your logo and info to put in the case with the product and a stack of business cards so people will know who made it.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be cryptic, I was responding to the question Restaurants are a tough business and controlling labor costs is a constant struggle - as well as finding skilled help to begin with. So maybe they are lazy and just don't care, or maybe the chef needs to prioritize labor allocation and dealing with fresh heads of lettuce is one of the corners that gets cut. If you get fresh romaine by the case it needs to be trimmed, cut, and washed. If you get bags of romaine hearts or cut leaves with preservatives there is much less work to do and it probably keeps longer. As for options - I don't know what produce wholesalers there are in western Montana. If there are no small specialty providers, chefs are stuck with Sysco (not known for being fine-dining quality), Costco, Restaurant Depot. All more likely to carry convenience products. With MT being mix of mountains and range land, maybe there are not the small farms and greenhouses that can provide beautiful fresh lettuces. Maybe it takes an extra day or 2 for produce to get there from CA and quality suffers so much that bagged salad starts to look good. Here in Seattle we have one huge produce wholesaler and many smaller ones, some all organic, some only microgreens, some foragers, there's this guy Merv who drives over from Yakima with summer goodie direct from the farms ... chefs here have lots of options. Chefs in Montana may not have as many.

You need your city/state business licenses and and approved kitchen to whatever degree your state requires. Here in WA we also have the cottage food law, but it specifically says no chocolate. I don't know why. Pretty much only dry baked goods can be made in home kitchens here - granola, cookies, bread. If you sell more than either 25% or 50% (I don't recall) wholesale you're supposed to be licensed by the state dept of Agriculture. If you sell mostly direct to consumers, the county public health dept licensing is fine. I have a commissary agreement with a restaurant kitchen, but each company in a commissary is inspected separately. My permit was $650 this year. I believe my state's permit is much less expensive, but there is a lot more paperwork, HACCP plan type stuff. As Jim said, you need to list the ingredients in descending order by weight, the net weight of product, and specify any of the top 8 food allergens (milk, wheat, peanuts, soy, egg, tree nuts (specify), fish, & shellfish) that may be present. You also need to list the producer's name and location. @Jim D., how close is this guy to opening? Are there any windows you can peek into and see what kind of display he has? People who order whole cakes or are looking for locally made gifts may well want a larger box. If he can't take care of your product or it's not worth selling by the piece, you can always say no. I had a woman who owned a French bakery (but was not a baker) who wanted to buy caramels in bulk and pack them in her own bags. I said no because I hate wrapping caramels, her place is at least 45 minutes drive away, and it seemed like more trouble than it would be worth

Efficiency? - it is pre-cut and pre-washed, saving time and labor Lack of other options? Maybe there just aren't many sources for local baby lettuces and they buy what Sysco has to offer. Is there much of a farmers market scene or farm-to-table hoopla where you are? I haven't been to MT in several years, but it seemed very meat and potatoes at the time.

Possibly too much fat, or too little sugar, or over-churning. Is it more icy or more buttery? Yes, definitely. Over-churned ice cream turns to sweet, egg-y butter. Yes. I think more depends on the machine and the recipe than on how thick the custard is. Thin sorbet bases can spin into smooth frozen delights. @paulraphael is right, ice cream is a complex mystery that isn't fully understood. I've never cooked custard sous vide so can't speak to that. What kind of machine do you have for churning?

Sorry to hear that, but I wouldn't blame the cuisine, I'd blame the culture of the other diners at your table.

Another Hello Kitty cake! I made a Hello Kitty wedding cake for this couple last summer, the bride just graduated with her MBA and hubby wanted to surprise her with another one. I tried to keep it simple with fondant on the top only, but it still took all day.

So then I watched some marshmallow videos and a few mentioned honey as being the original, historical sweetener. Ya learn something every day!

Honey is not crucial to marshmallows.

I had to look at a map, but maybe the Persian Gulf is relatively protected by the Gulf of Oman and geography. My first thought was rising sea levels and how low those islands look. People in the Maldives are afraid their country will be underwater in a few hundred years. Do the Emirati developers not care because they can afford to rebuild it all later?

Your website looks great! Was it custom built from scratch or did you use a template? I think that could work. Does it have to be sugar? Try microlane-ing white chocolate over your stencil and see how it sticks and how it looks. I suppose you could also decorate with almond flour or a mix of almond flour, powdered sugar, and/or cocoa butter/white chocolate. You can even get a white cocoa butter such as Chef Rubber white diamond if you prefer the pure white look of powdered sugar.

True, the shape does have distinct advantages. And I'm not pretending to be an expert, I've barely played with my airbrush because I got frustrated that coverage wasn't better. But could buy a whoooooole lot of cocoa butter to practice with! Melissa's airbrush set-up seemed like overkill, but maybe you really need to get more cocoa butter in there than you think? Lay it on thick, just not so thick that it drips? Anyway, good luck!

CW1433 looks good http://shop.tomric.com/Product/I-1433/Dome_Mold.aspx https://www.pastrychefsboutique.com/chocolate-world/648986-chocolate-world-cw1433-polycarbonate-chocolate-dome-mold29x25-mm-24-cavity-15g-modern-shaped-molds.html also 1157 & 2116: http://www.chocolateworld.be/en/add.asp?g=praline+moulds&cat=Spheres I mean, if it's worth it to you to pay extra to get exactly what you want, I don't want to discourage you, and you may very well be able to sell the extra molds. I'm doing custom bar molds because I didn't find anything in the right weight range that felt special enough yet not a nightmare to polish. I'm going to focus on acquiring new wholesale accounts in the fall with the new bars in new packaging plus nutrition info, so hopefully the investment will pay off. But I don't buy those $50 chocolate molds you speak of, I much prefer $20-25 so I can get more of them, or other toys, like a large stone remnant for the kitchen that I need to figure out how to lift onto the table without breaking ... today's challenge!

Well at least hemispheres should be super easy for design once someone does actually respond. It sucks to feel ignored, especially when there are so few options for this service. I found the soap guy I was thinking of, not what you need for this, but if you ever want to make your favorite pet/car/creature in chocolate ... I believe he hand-carves in clay then makes a silicone mold. https://sculpturesoap.com/ Anyway, are you stuck on hemispheres or do taller domes appeal? Sounds like you want 15 grams plus or minus 1 or 2? The CW 2295 is one I like, I just weighed a few pieces that came in at 12 grams. http://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/chocolate-molds/chocolate-molds-chocolate-world/cw2000-to-cw2400/p17532691.html

That sucks. Did you use the contact form on the website or just email? I've been working with Jennine - jTaberski@tomric dot com. Tell her Andrea at Dolcetta sent you. It's a little frustrating to work through a rep rather than directly with the designer, but we are getting close - I'm awaiting a cavity sample of the latest version. And I don't know where I got that "less than $10", maybe for very thin molds but I'm going heavier gauge and buying less than 100 so mine will be closer to $15 each plus around $700 total tooling & die making expenses. This is for the cheaper thermoformed molds, not the injection molds that we are used to from Chocolate World etc. I don't have the impression that you're doing very high volume so the overhead at tomric or micelli may be prohibitive if you only want 10 of something. Is there anyone in your area with a 3D printer that could help? Or experienced with silicone mold making? I met a soap maker at a holiday show who made all his own really detailed molds and does custom work, I'll see if I can find a name, might be worth contacting just to see your range of options. Can I ask what you're hoping to make?